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The War in France | Ken Burns: The War

View images taken from the Allied invasion of Normandy, France during World War II. On June 6, 1944, a million and a half Allied troops stormed the French coastline in the greatest invasion in history. More than 2,500 Americans would lose their lives as the Allies ripped through Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, a German fortification along the Atlantic coastline, and began its campaign to liberate the country. The Allies would succeed in liberating Paris two months later, on August 25, 1944.

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Members of a US Army Infantry unit, waiting order to move up from St. Lo, Normany, gaze skyward at Allied planes roaring across to "soften up" the enemy lines before the infantry attacks in Operation Cobra, 1944. Credit: The National Archives (208-AA-22P-10).

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Bundled Japanese-American soldiers of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team gather in front of a tent pitched in a snowy, wooded area in France. November 13, 1944. Credit: The National Archives (111-SC-341438).